A pack of hedge funds that had been targeting James Hardie in recent weeks ahead of the building materials giant’s removal from a widely followed equity index, has started to unwind their negative bets that brings an end to a lucrative trade. ($AFR)
US
US tech stocks recorded their biggest daily gain in six months on Monday, as mounting expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next month encouraged investors to “buy the dip” after a recent sell-off. ($FT)
Alphabet closed in on a $4 trillion valuation on Monday, set to become only the fourth company to enter the exclusive club, as the Google parent rides an artificial intelligence-driven rally. (TR)
Nvidia Corp. shares fell on a report that Meta Platforms Inc. is in talks to spend billions on Google’s AI chips, suggesting the internet search leader is making headway in efforts to rival the industry’s bestselling AI accelerator. ($BBG)
Zoom issued a Q3 beat-and-raise as expanding AI tools, lower churn, and a $1B buyback boost underscored strengthening enterprise momentum. ($BBG)
Economy
Chinese exports of controlled products to Russia increased 87 percent in price from 2021 to 2024, compared to just 9 percent for shipments elsewhere. ($FT)
New car sales in Europe rose 4.9% in October as electric cars outpaced petrol and diesel registrations, European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association data showed on Tuesday. (TR, ACEA)
The UK government will promise to buy emerging chip technology from British companies in a 100 million pound ($130 million) bid to boost growth by supporting the artificial intelligence sector. ($FT)
Allies of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have laid the groundwork for him to push a rate cut through a divided committee at next month’s meeting even though it could draw multiple dissents. ($WSJ)
U.S. retail sales increased less than expected in September, taking a breather following a recent stretch of strong gains. (TR)
Business
Amazon is planning to invest about $15 billion in Northern Indiana to build data center campuses, the tech giant said as it looks to boost its cloud computing capacity to support booming artificial intelligence demand. (TR)
Spotify is preparing to raise US subscription prices in the first quarter of next year, according to three people familiar with the matter. ($FT)
Apple Inc. has eliminated dozens of sales roles in a bid to streamline the way it offers products to businesses, schools and governments, marking a rare layoff for the iPhone maker. ($BBG)
Mainland Chinese investors are increasing their stakes in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ahead of fiscal second-quarter earnings, betting that the strong launch of its AI tool Qwen will help fuel future growth. ($BBG)
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue growth, riding China’s AI development boom. ($BBG)
Star’s outgoing chairwoman Anne Ward said the casino giant could be privatised if the company’s financial problems don’t change, as the group confirmed it was searching for new lenders for the third time in two years. ($AFR)
Surfing champion Mick Fanning and skincare entrepreneur Zoe Foster Blake have emerged as high-profile IPO backers of Sea Forest, a seaweed cattle-feed business heading to the ASX on Wednesday in a rare listing. ($AFR)
The country’s major accounting firms are racing to deploy artificial intelligence across their businesses in the hope of slashing costs and spending less time on routine compliance and more on advice. ($AFR)
Britain’s Domino’s Pizza Group said on Tuesday that its CEO Andrew Rennie had stepped down, and would be replaced by Chief Operations Officer Nicola Frampton, on an interim basis. (TR)
AUSTRAC is considering taking action against Bendigo and Adelaide Bank after the regional lender said a secret internal investigation into its management of anti-money-laundering risks found broad failures. ($AFR)
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates. ($FT)
Currencies
Traders are piling into bets that Wednesday’s Budget will push the pound lower against the dollar, on fears that chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax-raising measures could hurt the UK’s already-weak economic growth. ($FT)
Dealers say that the introduction of multilateral compression for US dollar/CNH cross-currency swaps at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing OTC Clear will help to relieve growing regulatory capital, margin and settlement limit pressures amid a recent boom in trading of the offshore renminbi contracts. (FXM)
Politics
United States’ Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, stated that the EU must adopt a balanced approach to technology regulations to secure US exemptions from 50 percent tariffs on EU steel and aluminum. ($FT)
American victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack file federal complaint accusing Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and the exchange of providing substantial assistance to Hamas and Hezbollah by concealing fund movements. ($FT)
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to launch a government-wide effort to build an integrated artificial intelligence platform to harness federal scientific datasets to train next-generation technologies. (TR)
In the phone call with President Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reportedly emphasised the importance of Taiwan’s return to China.
Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said on Tuesday he had “no information” about any cooperation with South Korea on U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on semiconductors, adding that Taiwan was conducting talks only with the United States. (TR)
The Albanese government is targeting savings across the public service of up to $5.6 billion a year, in what experts warn could be one of the biggest cost-cutting exercises in Canberra in decades. ($AFR)
Deal Flow
Cohen & Gresser, the New York law firm known for representing Sam Bankman-Fried and Ghislaine Maxwell, is discussing a $40 million convertible note sale to private equity, potentially converting to equity and closing in early 2025. ($FT)
Amex’s $3.8B-listed business-travel spinout Global Business Travel Group is weighing a sale. ($BBG)
Dutch lender ING completed two SRTs linked to $12B of corporate loans. ($BBG)
Independent Research
Over half of shoppers have regretted a purchase or had a negative experience during the Black Friday sales. (CHOICE)
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence up 2.9pts to 87.1 driven higher for second straight week by more confidence about buying conditions ahead of Black Friday sales weekend. (RM)
Risk of mortgage stress drops to lowest since February 2023 following RBA interest rate cut in August to 3.6%. (RM)
The Westpac Nowcast measure of current activity in the Australian economy shows activity strengthened through late 2024, with growth firming into September 2025. (WBC)
Opinion
The view that the stock market is in a massive bubble and bound to crash is incorrect over the medium term. ($FT)
Bloomberg Economics analysis shows that Trump’s USD$21 Trillion investment boom is actually short trillions, with many of those investments in question. ($BBG)
